


Fade

by Lady_Amarant



Series: Fire [2]
Category: Tales of Xillia, Tales of Xillia 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 20:34:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2322326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Amarant/pseuds/Lady_Amarant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ludger finds even the strongest blazes will eventually fade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fade

**Author's Note:**

> I had always wanted to explore what happens to Jude in this story, but it never really fit in with Burn. Also, I felt I had been too nice to them given my reputation in other fandoms.

He meets Jude the first time at night.

Ludger doesn't know what to make of him at first. It's obvious he's still a teenager, but he looks like a doctor. He looks around Trigleph like a lost puppy, half remembering where everything is. But Ludger helps him, takes him to the train station despite the hour, despite knowing no trains are running at that time of night.

He doesn't know then why Jude travels at night.

* * *

He meets Alvin at Helioborg.

It's not obvious at first. Jude treats Alvin with the same respect as he treats Leia and Rowen, as he treats Ludger. But the way Jude looks at Alvin, the way they face each other even when they're talking to others, the way Alvin bends close to him to ask him a private worried question makes Ludger's chest feel heavy.

He doesn't know why.

* * *

Jude insists they travel at night as often as possible. Only Alvin seems to know why.

* * *

Ludger knows it's a dream. Hands stroke his chest as someone kisses down his stomach. It feels like there's too many limbs but it feels so good. He knows he'll wake up needing his hands around his cock, to finish the job, but right now he can't stop the phantom sensation of someone kissing his neck, of someone licking his hip. He wants so badly, and he shouldn't look down. It'll break the spell, the mystery of the dream. It'll wake him up, knowing.

But he has to look, to see black hair framing a teenager's face, lips parted as he hears a deeper voice chuckle in his ear. It wakes him as he expects, leaving him uncomfortably aroused and deeply embarrassed.

Alvin gives him a look the next day over Jude's oblivious head that makes him blush.

* * *

It's Jude in his lap that makes Ludger realize who the catalyst for this dimension is. It's Jude kissing him, fingers digging into his throat as his hips roll. It's the smell of old blood on his breath when he breaks the kiss, and the scent of new blood when he bites his throat.

Both Alvin and Jude give him looks as Jude heals the bite once the dimension is destroyed. Knowing looks that make him blush and look down, as if they knew Ludger had held onto those slim hips for a moment, had lost himself in that fantasy.

* * *

Jude's health keeps going up and down. He keeps getting a fever, and losing it.

When he loses it, Alvin has a cold for a few days, weak and pale.

* * *

"You can see it too, can't you."

Alvin's words don't make much sense to Ludger. But they also make too much sense as they look at Jude, his cheeks starting to hold that flush of a beginning fever. They're coming more often, burning hotter than the last.

"He won't admit it," Alvin continues. "But we know. And you know too, don't you? Kid's dying."

He can hear Alvin trying to hide how much the words hurt him. Ludger turns to him, wondering why he brings it up, and notices something. Something dark along his collar, near his throat. Something red.

Suddenly, Ludger can feel Jude in his lap again, and the teeth in his skin.

* * *

Jude's dying.

He's burning up from the inside.

He starts to fade, not quite as engaged as before. It's slow, slower if they travel at night and try not to fight unless they need to. But it happens, and Alvin starts to fade with him, trying to keep him alive.

* * *

It's not a dream this time. The lips around him are Jude's, and the cock inside him is Alvin's. His throat bleeds, just enough to quell Jude's fever. He can feel Jude moving to straddle him, legs parting as he slowly slides down.

It feels right.

* * *

They tell him why. They tell him of the experiment. Of how they thought Jude would be okay as long as he avoided burning for too long.

It makes Ludger wish it was a fractured dimension, that he could destroy the catalyst and save Jude's life. But it's real, and Jude starts to keep a fever at all times. Nothing Alvin and Ludger can do will break it. All they can do is wait.

And watch Jude fade.


End file.
